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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/27113341">Desert Orange</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/generalekenobi/pseuds/generalekenobi'>generalekenobi</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Fluff, Light Angst, Look I just needed some plotless tenderness alright?, M/M, Tooth-Rotting Fluff</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-10-20</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-10-20</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 17:10:03</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,204</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/27113341</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/generalekenobi/pseuds/generalekenobi</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>“May I paint your nails?” Obi-Wan asks, framing it as his own desire rather than asking Cody if he would like to do so. When his lover is in one of his more negative moods, he rarely allows himself anything. Cody pauses, the conflict on his face seemingly disproportionate with the question, but he begins to pull off his gauntlets after a moment.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>CC-2224 | Cody/Obi-Wan Kenobi</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>13</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>211</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Desert Orange</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>I've been struggling with writer's block something awful, so I'm hopping back into the saddle by finishing this half-written abandoned oneshot. It's not my best work, but I just need to publish something and get out of this funk. I'm a sucker for intimacy, so I decided to have Obi paint Cody's nails, because gender roles are bullshit and nail-painting is a great excuse for tender hand holding.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>There’s a knock on the door. Obi-Wan looks down at his still-wet nail polish. It glistens blue in the half-light of his room on the Negotiator. He sighs.</p><p>“Come in!” he calls. He can sense Cody’s force-presence hesitate just a moment before he types in Obi-Wan’s keycode and the door slides open. Cody is finally getting comfortable enough to show up at Obi-Wan’s quarters unannounced both for business and personal matters. Obi-Wan looks over to his Commander.</p><p>Cody looks terrible - not that Obi-Wan can blame him. The campaign on the Outer Rim they just wrapped up was particularly brutal. They haven’t had losses this high in months. Cody eyes him tiredly. </p><p>“Obi-Wan,” he greets, signalling he isn’t here for work. He looks dead on his feet, so Obi-Wan motions him over. His lover drops into the chair in front of him like dead weight. Cody’s eyes come to rest on Obi-Wan’s hands as he screws the lid back on the nail polish. His brows scrunch together.</p><p>“What are you doing?” Cody asks.</p><p>“I’ve just finished painting my nails.” Obi-Wan says. Cody’s brows stay knitted.</p><p>“Why?” he asks, like the concept is absurd. To him, such a small thing probably is. Obi-Wan finds himself upset that something as simple as painting one’s nails is a foreign concept to the vode. He knows many of his men enjoy self expression through hair dye and tattoos, so it seems unfair for them to not be allowed something as small as colorful fingernails.</p><p>“Because they are pretty that way. Quin taught me when we were younger. It’s grounding, and it keeps me from chewing them off when stressed,” Obi-Wan tells him. Cody’s brows smooth out. He’s still staring at Obi-Wan’s hands and his emotions are a chaotic mess in the Force. Cody is obviously here to talk, but Obi-Wan gives him the time to think. In the meantime, though…</p><p>“May I paint your nails?” Obi-Wan asks, framing it as his own desire rather than asking Cody if he would like to do so. When his lover is in one of his more negative moods, he rarely allows himself anything. Cody pauses, the conflict on his face seemingly disproportionate with the question, but he begins to pull off his gauntlets after a moment. Obi-Wan gets up and retrieves the two other colors he owns from where they’re resting on the counter. </p><p>“Which color?”</p><p>Cody looks between the light blue, the emerald green, and the desert orange before eventually tapping the orange one with his finger. His hands are scrapped and caked with mud and blood under his gauntlets, meaning he hasn’t even had a shower since arriving back on the Negotiator. He was likely either filling out paperwork or speaking with the traumatized shinies, his two favorite activities to throw himself into after the most grueling battles. Obi-Wan fetches a rag and fills a bowl with water before sitting down again. He grabs Cody’s left hand and places a kiss to the back of it before doing the same to the right. Cody flushes and gives Obi-Wan the smallest of smiles.</p><p>He begins cleaning Cody’s hands with the rag, and by the time he’s done the water is a dark brown. Obi-Wan traces the cuts with the tip of his finger, sending a small pulse through the Force to heal them. He can tell that Cody is quite out of it by the fact that he doesn’t even complain about it</p><p>Obi-Wan shakes the orange bottle and unscrews the cap before leaning forwards and delicately dragging the brush down the center of Cody’s short-bitten thumbnail.</p><p>“We lost thirty-four men,” Cody says, breaking the comfortable silence as he watches Obi-Wan paint the nails of his right hand. “Three entire squads, the rest at random. Most of the shipment of shinies we got are dead. Over half of the deceased were barely - barely <em> nine, </em>” Cody says, voice cracking at the end.</p><p>“It wasn’t your fault anymore than it was mine,” Obi-Wan reminds him.</p><p>Cody huffs.</p><p>“I know. The worst bit is I… I hardly even feel anything anymore. I told these men I was sorry, that their brothers’ sacrifices wouldn’t be in vain, but the truth is that I felt numb and that these… <em> children </em> will be completely forgotten, their deaths meant <em> nothing- </em>” Cody cuts himself off. Obi-Wan looks up from where he’s working on Cody’s left hand in time to see a tear run down his lover’s scarred cheek. He pauses and reaches up to brush it away before guiding Cody to look at him.</p><p>“You cannot be expected to grieve for every life lost, Cody. Their deaths may feel pointless, but even if this war means nothing, we fight to keep eachother alive. Alright?”</p><p>Cody looks at him as if he hung the stars in the sky.</p><p>“Okay. I’m… I’m sorry-”</p><p>Obi-Wan reaches up and caresses his cheek again, cutting off Cody’s apology.</p><p>“Never apologize for speaking your mind, dear heart.”</p><p>Cody seems too choked up to speak and so just nods. Obi-Wan begins on his second coat of paint. Cody seems to settle in the Force.</p><p>“Did I tell you about the dream I had the other day?” Obi-Wan asks, wanting to cheer up his lover. It’s the first dream he’s had in years that felt prophetic. The Force has been far too clouded to see anything in the darkness that swirls around the galaxy. Cody shakes his head. </p><p>“It was about us.”</p><p>Cody makes an inquisitive noise and Obi-Wan feels a smile come to his face at the memory. </p><p>“We live in a house together, after the war. Someplace warm, I’m not sure where. We end up raising banthas.”</p><p>“Banthas?!” Cody asks, and Obi-Wan gives a small laugh.</p><p>“Yes, banthas. They quite like you.” He says with a smile as he screws the cap back on the nail polish. “We have a son,” he says, and he hears Cody’s breath catch. “He’s beautiful, as bright as a star. He has blue eyes, blond hair, and is just as stubborn as you.”</p><p>Cody snorts.</p><p>“I think you mean just as stubborn as you.”</p><p>Obi-Wan rolls his eyes.</p><p>“Both of us, then,” he concedes. “We grow old together. We… we are happy, Cody,” he says truthfully. The dream had terrified him because they were living away from Coruscant, meaning he actually left the Order, something he’s been wrestling with for years. The future is nebulous, though, and Obi-Wan won’t allow himself to obsess over it. </p><p>Cody laces their freshly painted fingers together, drawing Obi-Wan out of his reverie. There isn’t a smile on his face, but his brow is smooth and there is a twinkle in his eye.</p><p>“If it means I’m with you, with… our son, then I look forward to herding banthas,” he says, and Obi-Wan can’t help the goofy grin that splits his face. He leans his head on Cody’s pauldron and snakes his arms around his lover’s waist, in spite of the hard plastoid. </p><p>“You will make a <em> dashing </em> farmer, my dear, if I may say so,” he says with a sigh, and Cody snorts.</p><p>“Only for you,” Cody replies, and presses a kiss to Obi-Wan’s head as they find sanctuary in one another’s arms.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Follow me at generalekenobi on tumblr for writing updates and star wars content!</p></blockquote></div></div>
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